


Shift the Pendulum

by sheengyi (colouring)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Dark, Horror-ish, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 16:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9770813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colouring/pseuds/sheengyi
Summary: the fast-forward button doesn't want to let go of sehun





	

**Author's Note:**

> hello! this was my first time writing dark/horror, despite my absolute fear of horror films. please feel free drop constructive criticisms!
> 
> previously posted on livejournal under sheengyi.

sehun barges in violently, his body a mess of trembling shoulders and furious gasps, his sweat clinging desperately to every hair on his skin. he has no time to save his breath before a raw stench of sewage numbs his senses. he flits his eyes left and right.  
  
  
broken sinks. disjointed pipes. a pile of crushed concrete in one corner.  
  
  
and walls. walls barricading all four sides and three extra ones. and not a single window in sight.  
  
  
sehun tries to regain control of anything: his heaves, his frantic mind, his twitching muscles, anything just  _anything_  to distract himself from that dreadful feeling of walking straight into the devil’s lair-  
  
  
‘sehunah where are you?’  
  
  
sehun freezes. tiny needles layer every patch of his skin. his mind wages a war with his body; screaming shouting, throwing commands-  
  
  
‘come on sehun, it’s just one quick breath and  _poof…’_  
  
  
that voice; so svelte, so piercing and so  _dangerously_  close. sehun whips his head around the rundown restroom. his eyes whimper at the half-hinged doors and the ruthless cavity plastered between tiles of white. sehun’s ears perk at murky echoes of boots from the hallway. each step overshadows the last in controlled strides – so mechanical are their movements that they walk in sync with the ticking of an antique clock hidden in a dusty corner of the attic, approaching and devouring each second of sehun’s life.  
  
  
‘it’s finished.’  
  
  
the door clicks.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
adrenaline jumpstarts sehun’s senses and lurches his body towards the far-end cubicle. his limbs scramble to wrench open the wooden barrier and into temporary abode; sehun pushes his back against the door to make ‘temporary’ last as long as  _humanely_  possible.  
  
  
‘aww sehunah, why’d you have to run away like that? I know you love hiding behind bushes and in little corners but hyung’s too  _old_  to be playing your little games now.’  
  
  
sehun drops to the ground. He feels a deep migraine conquering his head; the lines are all crooked, everything becomes a blur, fuzzy images dash around his head, wild and free and  _happy._  sehun can barely make out a beautiful hand slipping into his own, their fingers intertwining, the sun shining down so brightly over them in the warmest of halos. sehun runs after these fleeting images, desperate to catch just one of them, to have the luhan hyung he used to know return to him.  
  
  
a deafening crash vibrates against the walls and sehun’s rattling heart.  
  
  
‘nope, not in THIS cubicle.’  
  
  
sehun snaps out of his reverie. he slowly loosens each finger curved around those images and angrily brandishes  his wavering doubts with clear, vivid photographs: photographs of young pale faces cruelly slashed with wrinkling complexions, spiritless urchins thrown in a pile without a care and a sea of red sticky notes all chanting the same mantra:   _I want to be younger_.  
  
  
_Bang_  
  
  
one, two, three, four sweaty fingers; four more doors until sehun’s cubicle becomes the next victim. sehun finds himself being pushed further and further towards the cliff’s edge – but the brandished photographs clear his mind of all distractions so he can focus on pushing  _back_. he examines the dark, cramped space through the veil of his wet lashes.  
  
  
_Splash_  
  
  
_there_. right in the corner, a tall wooden stick attached to a pink plastic cup sits clamped to the floor. sehun tries reaching out to it while still attaching his back to the door; the gap between the two proves to be enormous and sehun gives up. he switches position, keeping his head and shoulders on the door while stretching his whole body – his foot touches the stick and despite his incessant kicking, the plunger remains to be out of reach.  
  
  
_Crash_  
  
  
the crashes are thunderous now. sehun places his left leg firmly on the door and extends his right leg, bending his whole upper body towards the stick. his fingers grab air. sehun grits his teeth , willing, begging his arm to lengthen just a few more centimeters. his heart beats like war drums, the sweat on his forehead glistening and gushing out in buckets. the warm air inside refuses to circulate and instead mingles with the sludge and his already clammy skin – mocking him, suffocating his every effort. sehun gives one last thrust, pushing his fingers a little bit further. his hand grips the timber.  
  
  
_Boom_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
a burst of light. a monstrous bang. a searing pain on his left leg.  
  
  
‘sehunnie, is this where you’ve been hiding all along? I should’ve known.'   
  
  
steady , mechanical steps approach. sehun struggles to get up – the impact from the door was too much, hammering his left leg furiously against the wall. sehun can hear miniscule ‘ _cracks’_  as he shifts his feet.  
  
  
the steps halt. sehun is suddenly plunged backwards, two arms pinning his shoulders against the wall. he lets out a pained moan as his head collides with the ceramic tile. a hand is clasped over his mouth and sehun feels a body sit on his thighs, the person’s knees against the wall on either side of sehun.  
  
  
‘shh you big baby, it’s just luhan hyung’  
  
  
sehun cracks an eye open. small face, smooth milky skin, a sharp clean jaw, a high-ridged nose – if anyone were to look at him while walking around the streets, one would inhale sharply or think ‘masterpiece’ at how ethereal his appearance is (or, in sehun’s case, fall in love with him at once).  
  
  
on normal days, that is.  
  
  
on days his eyes shine brightly like two pearls under the summer sun, full of life and vibrance. but look at those eyes on the fifteenth of every month: dark inky depths fill the two holes; a haunting black sea where the dead corpses are thrown when he’s devoured them; a void.  
  
  
sehun was traumatized when he found out luhan’s secret. afraid and unsure, he shrouded his knowledge under a blanket of ignorance and continued to snuggle under luhan’s arms every time he couldn’t sleep. it wasn’t until last month when the police reported all over the news of a homicide of little boys. They were confused as to how the children died: their only reasonable (and still far-fetched) conclusion was that the boys seemed to age  _faster_  – their wrinkled skin and paper-grey hair attested to this. sehun had leered at luhan, who was whistling on the couch at the time, carefree and bright with not a single line of worry on his porcelain face.  
  
  
sehun’s conscience took control that night. he left the apartment.  
  
  
how luhan found out about sehun’s shrouded knowledge remains a question, but last night luhan knocked at his new apartment and sehun has been running across the city like a fugitive.  
  
  
until now.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
‘sehunah look at these,’ luhan points a finger at the crowfeet carved along the corners of his eyes 'i’m getting old! i’m not young anymore’  
  
  
‘look at you, still so youthful. no wrinkles, no grey hair, nothing!’ luhan lifts one hand and strokes sehun’s forehead, his lithe fingers dancing over his eyelids, making patterns and swirls, circling around the borders of his nose and his trembling lips ‘so, so beautiful’  
  
  
‘surely you don’t mind me, well, borrowing, some of that youth, hm?’  
  
  
sehun squirms under his touch, jerking his leg and shaking his head to pry off the devil on his lap right now. luhan immediately moves closer to sehun, swiftly pinning his arms behind his head, his expression not fazed for even a slight second.  
  
  
‘now, now what’s the rush here? and did you forget? it’s my birthday today! you did promise me a wonderful birthday present, even though you left me in a cold bed that day you little bitch.’  
  
  
luhan’s expression turns rigid, the sardonic smirk he proudly wore a while ago now completely wiped off without a single trace. Sehun tries to jerk again, but luhan maintains a tight grip on his shoulders, his nails digging deep into sehun’s skin.  
  
  
‘be thankful to me. I bet you miss this’  
  
  
a pair of lips smashes against sehun’s, their teeth knocking furiously, hot heavy breaths intermingling and suddenly sehun remembers those stolen kisses during the movies, their first passionate kiss under the mistletoe, their long, lascivious nights. sehun feels himself relaxing, his guard loosening ever so slightly.  
  
  
but right then, luhan forcefully detracts his mouth from sehun’s and begins inhaling deep smoldering breaths, gasping and clutching sehun’s face, delirious and terribly hungry. the lump in sehun’s throat disappears and sehun screams a frightening and shrill cry – but no one is around to listen to his cry for help and luhan continues to relish his midnight feast with relentless power. sehun feels his skin ripping apart and disintegrating, the pain like flames swallowing every inch of his face. he thrashes his arms wildly, fighting with the air, trying to grab that demon’s head and rip it away from his face.  luhan responds with one last, merciless gulp of air, sucking every fragment of youth left in sehun’s body.  
  
  
sehun’s mind still hollers orders but sehun has fallen limp, mouth agape, eyes writhing ferociously. pain devours his entire body, his sagging muscles shrieking as luhan lets go of his face, letting it stumble to the ground.  
  
  
  
he sees the glint in luhan’s eyes before he drowns in the black sea.


End file.
